SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana men's basketball team closes its pre-holiday schedule Saturday and Sunday hosting Upper Iowa and Winona State in the Sanford Pentagon. Saturday's contest with the Peacocks is slated for 5:30 p.m. while Sunday's game with the Warriors will tipoff at 3:30 p.m.
 
The first 100 fans through the doors on Saturday will receive an Augustana-branded Santa hat while the entire evening is devoted to wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. In addition, Santa will ride in from the North Pole and take pictures with fans between the women's and men's games.
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
 
About the Peacocks
Upper Iowa is 7-4 overall and 4-1 in the NSIC this season having won two straight after dropping its lone league contest at Minnesota State. After that 97-68 defeat, the Peacocks turned around and toppled Sioux Falls, 92-71, and Southwest Minnesota State, 66-57. After those two wins, Lucas Duax was named, albeit controversially, the NSIC Player of the Week. He averaged 19 points, four rebounds and four steals over the two wins.
 
Upper Iowa is led by the Preseason NSIC South Division Player of the Year Jake Hilmer and his 20.3 points per outing. He is joined in double-digit scoring by Duax and Nick Reid at 18.1 and 14.5 points per game, respectively. Reid tops UIU with 9.2 rebounds per game. Duax ranks second in the nation with his 29 total steals over the Peacocks' 11 games this year.
 
About the Warriors
Winona State enters the weekend with a 6-4 overall record and a 1-4 mark in the NSIC. After topping Concordia-St. Paul on Dec. 3, the Warriors were dealt back-to-back losses by Southwest Minnesota State (62-46) and Sioux Falls (68-63).
 
Winona State is led by Connor Dillon and his 20.7 points per outing. He ranks second in all of NCAA Division II with his 184 field-goal attempts while ranking ninth in total makes with 79. Two other Warriors average double-figure points with Connor Drew at 10.8 points and Luke Martens at 10.0 points per outing.
 
The Warriors will see a familiar face on the Vikings' bench as Augustana graduate assistant Devin Whitelow was a four-year starter for Winona State. Whitelow set an NCAA record for assist-to-turnover ratio in 2018-19 when he dished 5.96 assists per one turnover.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana is 6-5 overall and 2-3 in the NSIC after earning a split last weekend including a win over No. 9 Minnesota State. The victory handed the Mavericks their first loss of 2022-23 and was the last remaining undefeated team in the NSIC.
 
Augustana is led by Jadan Graves and Ryan Miller who both average 11.5 points per game. Graves leads AU in assists with an average of 3.5 per game. Isaac Fink is the leading rebounder for Augustana with 8.2 per game.
 
One Last Thing
In the about the Peacocks section, we alluded to a controversy regarding the NSIC Player of the Week this week. That is because Graves averaged 25.5 points over the two-game schedule including going off for 35 points in the win over No. 9 Minnesota State. His points per game average was an NSIC best for the week while his 12-made 3-point field goals were also an NSIC best. We believe he was a worthy choice for the conference's player of the week last week.